What a shocker! After a great win against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, the Cleveland Cavaliers fell short at home against the short-handed Atlanta Hawks. Tim Hardaway Jr. led the visitors with 22 points and 5 assists, while shooting 9 of 14 from the field. Mike Dunleavy added 20 points off the bench and four more players finished the game with double digits. Atlanta played without several important players - Denis Schroeder, Paul Millsap, Dwight Howard and Kent Bazemore, while Cleveland's big trio were all involved with some big minutes.
LeBron James had 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists with an outstanding 12 of 15 from the field. Kyrie Irving also was shooting well - 8 of 13, but their teammates failed to produce some support.
Huge win for the Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks secured a playoff spot while resting players against the best team in the East, who decided not to rest until they secure a first seed. Isn't that ironic? Atlanta jumped to the 5th spot in the Eastern Conference and they'll play in the playoffs for a tenth straight season. And what a way to do it. First, they beat the Boston Celtics and then the Cleveland Cavaliers, two teams that are battling for a first position.
That's really a great job for the coach Mike Budenholzer, former GreggPopovich'ss assistant, who showed once again what a coaching talent he is.
LeBron James had some words at the press conference, but none of them describes what really happened last night. He said that the energy level was bad, but he didn't know why. Tyronn Lue, the Cavaliers coach, said: " That was obviously a really bad performance. To beat the Celtics and have the game that we had, come back and not capture it against a team that didn't even play their best players. I think we failed to respect them. I thought we'd just mess around until the game ends. That's how it was. That's who we've been.
I hate it."
What's next for the Cavaliers?
Cleveland will play against the Atlanta Hawks again on Sunday at the Phillips Arena, where they'll have a chance for revenge. Obviously, the rest is not an option for Tyronn Lue, as they need to win two more games to secure the first seed. That won't be easy for the Cleveland Cavaliers, especially since the Hawks now have fully recovered and fresh players. Also, the Cavs will play at Miami just one day after that game against Atlanta, so it'll be interesting to see how that trip will affect on LeBron and his teammates.